Bluesfest Adds More Acts

Jethro Tull and John Legend join the already revealed ZZ Top in the second announcement for Bluesfest 2010.

Others to feature in the second announcement are Gurrumul, Toots & the Maytals, Pete Murray, Wolfmother, Funky Meters, Irma Thomas, Booker T, Los Lobos, Kasey Chambers, Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, Tim Robbins & the Rogues Gallery Band, The Dingoes, Diesel, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, B.B. & the Blues Shack, Joe Louis Walker. Phil Jones & the Unknown Blues, The Snowdroppers, Ray Beadle, Nat Cole & The Kings and Barrence Whitfield.

These acts can now be added to the previously announced collection that included Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Cat Empire, Blind Boys of Alabama featuring Aaron Neville, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Fistful of Mercy, Mavis Staples, Xavier Rudd, Trinity Roots, Kate Miller-Heidke, Washington, Little Bushman, Tony Joe White, Indigo Girls, Eric Bibb, Ash Grunwald, Ruthie Foster, C.W. Stoneking, Jeff Lang, Saltwater Band, and RocKwiz Live.

The ever effusive Bluesfest promoter Peter Noble stated, “Our second announcement really takes Bluesfest 2011 to another level: The beautiful tones of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu will truly light up the festival – and this is exclusive, you won’t see him perform anywhere else. We also have the reggae royalty of Toots & the Maytals, the absolute reigning soul queen of New Orleans Irma Thomas, the stunning soul voice of John Legend who has just recorded a killer album with the Roots, the greatest soul Hammond organ player ever in Booker T, and the preeminent Mexican-folk-meets-rock-and-roll band Los Lobos.

“Nowhere else in Australia will you find so many artists who are the best of the best. You’ll see the band that practically invented funk music: the Funky Meters, a jaw-droppingly great German band with the best blues guitar player in Europe – B.B. & the Blues Shack, Joe Louis Walker – one of the last of the great blues guitar heroes with fans including Mick Jagger, B.B. King, and Herbie Hancock, and the pumped up blues and soul of Barrence Whitfield who’s been described as Little Richard meets James Brown

The 22^nd annual Bluesfest is on from Thursday April 21 to Monday April 25, 2011

Joe Cocker and George Thorogood Join Forces

Joe Cocker is a highly regarded artist but in some ways he’s perhaps under-rated. He’s been a regular visitor to Australia and he’s almost regarded as part of the furniture which probably doesn’t reflect the real quality of his output over a long career.

The Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Award winning artist has 21 studio and four live albums under his belt, his unmistakable bluesy soul voice a musical trademark in its own right.

The Sheffield-born singer has always been a huge favorite with Australian audiences and now he is returning to Australia and New Zealand for indoor concerts and a day on the green winery events in February 2011.

Cocker will be performing songs from his new album Hard Knocks in addition to the many gems in his illustrious back catalogue like ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’, ‘Unchain My Heart’, ‘Up Where We Belong’, ‘The Letter’ and ‘You Are So Beautiful’. After 40 years, Cocker remains one of rock’s pre-eminent survivors and a must-see live performer.

Special guest support artist is George Thorogood and his band The Destroyers. The blues/rock specialist has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, amassing an enviable reputation and loyal following for his scorching live performances.

For the a day on the green concerts, Australia’s own blues/soul/rock master Diesel joins the bill, as does our first country rock/roots band The Dingoes, who have reunited after 30 years with the album Tracks, an induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame and a return to the road.

A DAY ON THE GREEN SHOWS:

Saturday February 5 ROCHFORD WINES, YARRA VALLEY VIC

Sunday February 6 LECONFIELD WINES, McLAREN VALE SA

Saturday February 12 BIMBADGEN ESTATE, HUNTER VALLEY NSW

Sunday February 13 CENTENNIAL VINEYARDS, BOWRAL NSW

ON SALE FRIDAY NOVEMBER 26

INDOOR SHOWS:

Tuesday February 1 CONVENTION CENTRE, CAIRNS QLD

Wednesday February 2 ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, TOWNSVILLE QLD

Friday February 4 ROYAL PINES GOLF COURSE, GOLD COAST QLD

Tuesday February 8 PALAIS THEATRE, MELBOURNE VIC

Thursday February 10 ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, SYDNEY NSW

Tuesday February 15 DERWENT ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, HOBART TAS

ON SALE FRIDAY NOVEMBER 26

The Dingoes

Australian band The Dingoes do actually fit the meaning of the word “legendary”. Not only because they were a great band- which they were – but because in the thirty-one years since their last album they have managed to get on with their lives and let their music, all three albums, pretty much speak for themselves. Not that they have been absent from music, far from it. Broderick Smith releases great new albums regularly, Chris Stockley’s name appears in gig guides and liner notes on a frequent basis and Kerryn Tolhurst has been involved in probably over a hundred releases in the intervening years as a guitarist, songwriter or producer.

But a reunion when the band were inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame last year got the juices flowing and now in 2010 the Dingoes have returned with an outstanding new album entitled Tracks and a tour of Australia that is an event not to be missed. Kerryn Tolhurst took the time to answer the questions.

HHMM: The first question is the obvious one – this is the first album from The Dingoes in 31 years. Do you think you were ready?

KT: We couldn’t have done it unless we were ready I think. The opportunity presented itself out of the blue from the ARIA Awards last year, the Hall of Fame Induction which put us together in one room for the first time in 30 years. So we had to work up a couple of songs for the show and in the process it went so smoothly, we thought, hey, why stop there?

HHMM: I found it interesting to read that the idea was to try and approximate where the band would have benn had you taken every step of the journey and had arrived at this destination.

KT: It was one way of looking at it. We had to come up with some rationale for doing it and some way to approach it and that seemed as good as any. We didn’t want to just exist in the past. It wasn’t a nostalgia tour and a trip back in time. We wanted to show how we might have evolved to this point in time and that seemed like the obvious way to look at it.

HHMM: The thing I like about it most is that is doesn’t sound like you feel you have anything to prove or that you have to live up to any great mythology. It feels like you are doing it because it feels right.

KT: I think that was the approach from the beginning. We weren’t trying to prove anything, no. We tried to avoid gratuitous references to Australian place names and stuff like that and just approach it as songs and music from where we are now.

HHMM: Having said that time has been kind to this style of music. It has proven to be an almost ageless genre – when it’s done well. Is that something you’ve been aware of all the way through?

KT: I think so. What we’ve done has proven pretty resilient over the years the new waves of alternative country and the rise of the interest in roots music in general has benefited our situation now and put us into a relevant demographic that might not have existed before. But within the genre, if it’s not done well it can be pretty naff!

HHMM: The songs came from just about all the band members and yet they sound very cohesive as an album. Was it surprising to you, as the producer, to find that everyone had arrived at the same place?

KT: Well we had a lot of songs to choose from. We had thirty years of songs piled up and the hardest part was the song selection. We had to whittle it down to a short list and put it to a vote and we were trying to make it the most cohesive bunch of songs we could. It was a very democratic process though and that’s what we came up with.

HHMM: Personally over the years you’ve written a lot of songs. Has there been a lot of songs over the years that you’ve always thought would have been Dingoes songs had there been a Dingoes at the time?
KT: I think there were a couple that finally ended up on this record, being No Rain No River and Right To Your Door, which to me could have been written for the Dingoes originally. They were written when I was living in New York in the last ten years. Last year when this came up I went to those two songs first as a template for where we should go with this record.

HHMM: In the intervening 30 years everyone has been able to move on and get on with their lives and to me the album doesn’t sound at all nostalgic, but even so do you have a perspective on what the place of the Dingoes (Mark 1) was in Australian music?

KT : A little bit. I don’t let it effect my thinking to much in terms of making music. Otherwise you are just living in this legendary place in your own lunchtime and I try not to let that influence me at all.

HHMM: Did the ARIA Hall of Fame thing force you to analyse the bands place in history?

KT: It did because it came out of the blue and we hadn’t expected it because we were never a big commercial band. We hadn’t sold that many records and to be recognised by ARIA despite that, purely on a musical plane was really an honour.

HHMM: There are a lot of songs on the album that are about travel or restlessness or the journey. Does that go to the core of what The Dingoes is about or in fact is that the core of what rock and country music is about?

KT: I guess its pretty much the core of that genre, but for us I think the journey also signifies the passage of time and not just miles. For a musician you have to keep moving or you die. Speaking for myself, I have lived in a lot of different places and moved around a lot and you are always searching for something out there. I think Right To Your Door, the first song on the album talks about that and it’s a reflection on those travels and restlessness.

HHMM: I know that you’ve lived in places like New York and Savannah GA and Tuscon AR. What perspective does that give you on the “Australianness” of The Dingoes?

KT: I do get to see it from an outside perspective, that’s for sure. When I was here back in the seventies when we started the band it was far more subjective. We were subject to the political climate of the team and to the whole atmosphere of the music scene in Melbourne at the time. Now that I’ve been away for such a long time I can see it a little more subjectively.

HHMM: What have some of the towns you’ve lived in bought to your songwriting?

KT: Each town gives you a different perspective I think. I lived in New York and that’s a unique experience. It’s a huge town where you are anonymous and you have to plug away at what you are doing to stay alive. It makes you realise the level of professionalism that you have tom operate at. Then you move to somewhere more laid back like Tuscon and it gives you another perspective altogether. But I don’t know how it affects my songwriting. I wrote songs in all different places that I wouldn’t imagine that a song like that would come from. I don’t think there is a direct connection between the landscape and the song. It’s a bit more abstract.

HHMM: Three songs – Try Anyway, Ribs of The Land and Damascus Road – to me they are the most threatening sounding or intense songs on the album. Was it important to include some songs like that which were not too comfortable to either perform or listen to?

KT: Yeah, I think so. I think we wanted to extend ourselves a bit rather than just have the cruisey, roll along songs we had in the past, I think we wanted to give it a bit of edge and a bit of darkness and a bit of drama. I think those songs worked out really well in the context. Ribs Of The Land was a song that Broderick had written with matt walker and it suited the album really well. It gave it this kinda dark cinematic sense of place that I thought was really important on the album.

HHMM: It’s interesting the way you recorded the album. Just about everything was recorded in Tuscon, except the drums which were recorded in Adelaide!

KT: I’ve done a number of albums that way, drummers love it! They get to actually play to the whole song once its recorded and usually they are the first ones in playing to the bare bones of the song. When they can play to a fully recorded song they love it.

HHMM: With the up coming live shows I assume you’ll be running the full gamut from old to new.

KT: We don’t want to just be pushing the new album. We want to give people what we came to hear which is obviously a bit of what we did in the past. But I imagine those songs will sound a bit different now with the passage of time and the fact that we are a bunch of more mature aged musicians.

HHMM: Do you find that 30 years makes you a better player?

KT: Absolutely, without question. Everybody plays much better now. As a producer it makes things a lot easier that’s for sure. Everybody made their contributions and everybody had a more sophisticated way of looking at it.. We didn’t just go in there hell for leather and see who wins. It was a much more complementary, sympathetic approach to making music.

Sunday 01 Aug 2010 – The Republic Bar, Hobart, Tasmania

Tuesday 03 Aug 2010 – The Hallam Hotel, Hallam, Victoria

Wednesday 04 Aug 2010 – The Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh, Victoria

Thursday 05 Aug 2010 – The Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, Victoria

Friday 06 Aug 2010 – The Corner Hotel, Richmond, Victoria

Saturday 07 Aug 2010 – Meeniyan Hall, Meeniyan, Victoria

Sunday 08 Aug 2010 – Williamstown RSL, Williamstown, Victoria

Thursday 12 Aug 2010 – Lizotte’s, Newcastle, NSW

Friday 13 Aug 2010 – The Basement, Sydney, NSW

Saturday 14 Aug 2010 – Katoomba RSL, Katoomba, NSW

Sunday 15 Aug 2010 – Lizotte’s, Kincumber, NSW

Thursday 19 Aug 2010 – The Clarendon, Adelaide, SA

Friday 20 Aug 2010 – The Norwood Hotel, Norwood, SA

Saturday 21 Aug 2010 – The Charles Hotel, Perth, WA

Sunday 22 Aug 2010 – The Fly By Night Club, Perth, WA